Let's start with Homeroom
Koukou Debut is a wonderfully hilarious shoujo manga by Kawahara Kazune, whose previous works, Sensei! and Ai no Tame ni, you might be familiar with. Koukou Debut is Kawahara-sensei's most recent work and has collected 13 volumes.
The setting is a normal high school somewhere in the vicinity of Tokyo and the story surrounds the love adventures of the protagonist, Nagashima Haruna. Haruna is... a unique girl, let's just say. She was wholly focused on softball throughout her 3 years of middle school, while also engrossed in the romantic love stories of shoujo manga. Her one goal for high school is to "debut" as a fashionable and desirable girl and score herself a very manga-esque boyfriend.
Of course, in true shoujo manga style, she does get an awesome boyfriend... just not smoothly. Along the way, she makes great friends and goes through all of the expected challenges a girl in a shoujo manga would. But in the end, love prevails... right?
Though the set up of the story is very simple and while the ending is predictable, I find Koukou Debut to be a delightfully fun series. The characters are refreshing despite the various stereotypes you associate them with (for example, Yoh is the handsome, cool boyfriend). Haruna and her antics make me laugh out loud everytime I read through them, and there is just something about her, as well as the other characters, that I just cannot hate.
All in all, Koukou Debut is just a great series to read leisurely, without the angst. Read further down the page for some character info, read the series... and join the fanlsting!!
Making new friends
Haruna, of course, is the main character of Koukou Debut. She was a pitcher for her middle school softball team and thus was somewhat of a tomboy. Her strong point is her stamina and muscles (she has a higher grip power than Yoh o.O). One of her most obvious traits is her simpleness and blind faith in people. She has awful sense in fashion but wants a boyfriend in high school, so she studies hard to be trendy. But it really isn't her strong point and ends up wearing awful clothes and garish makeup. Haruna asked Yoh to be her "fashion coach" so she can be more popular and get picked up by guys. Eventually, though, Haruna starts going out with Yoh. Even though they both really like each other, funny things happen because of their very extreme personalities.
Yoh is Haruna's boyfriend. They met for the first time by coincidence on the street when Haruna was trying to get picked up by a guy. Yoh is the exact opposite of Haruna; he's cool, reserved, perceptive, and has a great sense about fashion and trends. After Haruna found out Yoh was an upperclassmen in her high school, she begged Yoh to be her fashion coach. Even though Yoh stipulated that Haruna must not fall in love with him, their both started liking each other and eventually became a couple. Their relationship is strange and funny because of Haruna's highly explosive personality and tendency to go off into her own world. But they are actually a great match for each other.
Asami is Yoh's younger sister, in the same grade as Haruna and Mami. She inherited her parents beauty genes just like her older brother. Asami, who goes by the nickname Assa, is the typical spoiled princess/cute girl type. She likes to be spoiled by the people around her, especially her older brother (she has somewhat of a brother complex), but he doesn't really pay her that much attention. She gets jealous very easily and is extremely selfish. She starts dating Fumi just when Haruna realizes that she harbored feelings for him (Assa was getting annoyed at how much attention Haruna was getting). Despite starting her relationship with Fumi for frivolous reasons, she began to see how much Fumi cares about her and was eventually won over.
Fumiya, also called Fumi for short, is one of Yoh's two best friends. He is a very nice guy, almost like a male version of Haruna. He is quite simple and doesn't think deeply into things. He is the first guy Haruna develops feelings for but that soon ends when Assa gets in the middle and steals Fumi as her boyfriend before Haruna can confess. Even though Fumi doesn't have any strong feelings towards any girl (he treats them all equally), he does eventually develop feelings for Assa. Despite Assa's spoiled princess personality, Fumi is the patient and tolerant kind of guy that fits Assa perfectly.
Mami is Haruna's best friend since middle school. She was the catcher for the same softball team and thus the two girls developed a strong bond during their middle school days. Mami, unlike Haruna, is very level-headed. She doesn't seem to have much interest in boys, though has had better luck in terms of Haruna (she was confessed to during middle school). Mami is the first person Haruna comes to for advice and Mami is an extremely good friend to her.
Asaoka, whose first name has not been revealed in the series (to my knowledge), is Yoh's other best friend. He is mostly seen with a smile on his face and is the happy-go-lucky type of guy. He never says anything mean to anyone, especially girls and that leads Yoh to believe that he doesn't really mean what he says. Because of this, no one really knows what Asaoka is thinking. He thinks Yoh (as well as Haruna) are extremely interesting people and wants their relationship to work. On several occasions, he helps Haruna and Yoh through their relationship problems. However, towards the middle of the series, he develops some feelings for Haruna that are soon crushed when he realizes that Haruna only has eyes for Yoh. This doesn't get in the way of his friendships with either parties, though.
